


Becoming family

by ThisShipHasSails



Series: Fanzine prompts [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Post-Episode: s11e03 Rosa, Thirteen Fanzine, prompt: duty of care
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 10:13:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18496819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisShipHasSails/pseuds/ThisShipHasSails
Summary: “I have a duty of care for you, son, and as long as I am alive, you will have to live with that. Like it or not. Because that's what she wanted, and I love her too much to break my word.”





	Becoming family

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: duty of care
> 
> Confession time: I am not on tumblr and have no idea how to tag this for the Thirteen Fanzine. But I love the sound of the fanzine, and I love weekly fic prompts, so if anybody out there does want to tag this story accordingly to link it to the fanzine, please go ahead (and let me know in comments, so I can drop by).
> 
> Also, I tried and failed to find out how old Graham is supposed to be, and then I just went with 65. 
> 
> Also also, I have no idea where Yaz and the Doctor are in this scene, but they are somewhere else, doing something else (and that's a story for another time). Knowing me, they will re-appear for the next prompt. For now, though, this is just Ryan and Graham becoming a family.

It should have been one of their best evenings yet, Ryan thinks wrily. After all, they had set history and the civil rights movement on its right track, met Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, and he couldn’t help admire his grand- _Graham_ for playing the part history had seen fit for him to play. 

But then it had all gone downhill, and he cannot even remember now how Graham and he got into their current shouting match. Some throwaway comment about white privilege coming to bite you in the ass that Ryan thought was funny, but realised by the crestfallen look on Graham’s face was hurtful when the words had already left his mouth and it was too late to take them back.

His nan had always warned him about speaking before thinking. But then again, his nan wasn’t here anymore, would never be anywhere that was here in his lifetime again, and so he thinks he might as well continue on the path of destruction he is on. It feels good to be angry. Way better than sad. And Graham’s knowing and pitiful look only incenses him further, and when the old man calls him son one time too often during their ensuing discussion, he snaps.

“Stop calling me that!”, Ryan shouts, and for a second, he revels in the stunned silence around him and the power that gives him. “I am not your son, I am not your grandson, I am not your anything!” He flings his words at the older man like missiles, fully intending to hit and hurt. 

But Graham sees them coming and steps to the side, letting them hit the wall instead. “You are. And I won't.”

“Why the bloody hell not?” Ryan realises that he is still shouting, but he also doesn’t care. If vitriol didn’t make an impact, maybe volume will. 

And he is not wrong, he notices smugly, as Graham raises his own voice in reply. “What do you think, smartass?” It’s the first time Ryan has ever heard Graham swear at him, and it does the trick to momentarily shut him up. 

“Because of her, of course! It's a promise she made me give her right at the start of our relationship. I knew from the beginning that the two of you were a double act, that I could not have her in my life without also letting you in. _Graham O’Brien_ , she said to me, _I have a duty of care for this young man, and if you want me, then so do you. Never forget that_ , she said. And I didn’t. I bloody hell didn’t.”

And where Ryan’s attack failed earlier, Graham’s words hit their mark dead centre. He watches Ryan cower as he takes a couple of steps back, away from the older man and closer to the nearest wall that might provide some sort of support.

Graham seizes his chance and continues, still fuelled by anger, heartbreak, and love.

“Why do you think she insisted you call me grandad? It's not because _I_ wanted it. I am a 65-year old English bloke, for Christ’s sake! I don't do emotions, never did families. But for her, I did. And I do. I have a duty of care for you, son, and as long as I am alive, you will have to live with that. Like it or not. Because that's what she wanted, and I love her too much to break my word.”

“Even though she's dead?” And after the previous shouting, Ryan is surprised to hear his own voice come out quiet and subdued. 

“No. Precisely because she is”, Graham replies, his own voice lower now, as he takes a careful step closer to Ryan. 

“Who else have you got, son? And who else have I got? You are the only reason I am still around. I would have followed her up and down that crane in a heartbeat, because life without her just hurts. And you are the reason I didn't. And trust me when I say that some days, I wish you weren't and I wish I would have.”

He is now close enough to put a hand on the younger man’s shoulder, and he is glad when Ryan doesn’t flinch away. “But that's not how families work. And like it or not, we are family now. Son.”

Ryan finally looks up to meet Graham’s eyes and sees the truth of his words reflected there. And while it doesn’t heal the screaming wound that is still raw in his soul, it lightens the crushing weight on his chest and makes it easier to breathe. 

And that, he thinks, is something, as he nods at Grah- _his grandad_ , puts his hand on the other man’s shoulder, squeezes briefly, and then turns to leave.


End file.
